Tuskegee Airman takes Black History Month to new heights

The Tuskegee Airmen were thought to be inferior and unpatriotic for one reason — they were black.

Keshia Clukey

The Tuskegee Airmen were thought to be inferior and unpatriotic for one reason — they were black.

They proved the nation wrong when they were in charge of escorting United States bombers between war-torn Germany and England and not one of the bombers were shot down.

“I looked at it as something I had to face if I were to go on to flight school,” Airman 2nd Lt. Herbert Thorpe said about the intolerance of the time.

Thorpe, one of the country's first black military airmen, is working to educate the public about how the group of World War II pilots overcame racism at home and abroad.

Thorpe, a Brooklyn native now living in Rome, N.Y., was one of 992 black pilots who graduated from the Tuskegee Army Air Field School in Tuskegee, Ala., during WWII.

Although Thorpe did not complete training in time to be deployed during the war, he recalled the racism he faced being stationed in the South. He discussed what a change it was going from his home in Brooklyn to his training camp in Pulaski, Miss., and then to Tuskegee.

Even during their struggle for equality, the Tuskegee Airmen received more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, one Silver Star, 14 Bronze Stars, 744 Air Medals, among many others. The decorations alone helped the country take the steps to end racial segregation in the military forces.

Defining diversity as “differing from each other,” Thorpe encouraged young black men as well as women to go on to higher education.

“It was wonderful to see an American hero,” said Air Force veteran Reginald Williams, who attended the program in Utica, N.Y. “Back then, they didn't get the equality we get now.”

Event attendee Juliann Scatko acknowledged the importance of being able to hear stories from WWII veterans while they're still here.

“We do not really know on the backs of whom we ride,” Scatko said.

Observer-Dispatch

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